Speaker 1: When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to
Speaker 1: know we're ready for you. Here are just a few
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Speaker 1: no mask, no Metro need one. We have a few
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Speaker 1: DC area moving. Find out more at well mata dot
Speaker 1: com slash doing our part. When I saw this you
Speaker 1: become a four oh one K millionaire, I thought, here's
Speaker 1: what you do. But you gotta be in your twenties.
Speaker 1: Is there anything you can do if you're not in
Speaker 1: your twenties? We wait, now, let's slay. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: this with Michelle Singletary, who is the nationally syndicated personal
Speaker 1: finance columnist, is done TV on finance and then then
Speaker 1: personal savings and that sort of thing, and has an
Speaker 1: award winning column appears a couple of times a week
Speaker 1: in Washington Post syndicated nationally. Hey Michelle, how are you?
Speaker 1: I'm fine? How are you good? Good? Good? All of
Speaker 1: my retirement plans are scratch off tickets, all right, Seriously,
Speaker 1: we're big, big, big believers in four oh one K.
Speaker 1: You just do you have to do it? But where
Speaker 1: do we begin? What's your advice? Well, you know it's
Speaker 1: it's I think it's surprises people that you can become
Speaker 1: a millionaire in your workplace plan. Um. And it's not
Speaker 1: as hard as you think. It takes time and consistency.
Speaker 1: And I heard you joking, you know, thirty years. But
Speaker 1: and that's true. Most most of them have been investing
Speaker 1: for their length of their career. But even if in
Speaker 1: your thirties and forties, if you're working to your sixes
Speaker 1: and seventies, you still have plenty of time to reach
Speaker 1: their goal. Um, to be a millionaire in your four
Speaker 1: o one K. I assume you tell people this is
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell my kids. First opportunity you have to
Speaker 1: put money in a four oh one kay, first job
Speaker 1: you have do it absolutely at the beginning of the
Speaker 1: I mean when I started in my job, my first
Speaker 1: new sweet the job, I remember, I come into a
Speaker 1: huge fire and I called my grandmother, who I called
Speaker 1: Big Mama, and I was like call then, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was on a far pay USS. Did you go upstairs
Speaker 1: and put money away for you your time froment and
Speaker 1: save you. And I was like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: A woman, I've got this big story on the front page.
Speaker 1: And she hung the phone up on me. It was impressed.
Speaker 1: She was said, do not call me back until you
Speaker 1: go up to HR and make sure you start putting
Speaker 1: away money for yourself. And I did that and every job,
Speaker 1: I've always done that, and that's really what it takes.
Speaker 1: I've got a daughter who just graduated from college for
Speaker 1: our master's program, and I already sent her a text
Speaker 1: I sit down and talk about what you're gonna do
Speaker 1: in touse of her time. And what I know when
Speaker 1: you is it just seems like it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: never going to happen. And I don't have any money now.
Speaker 1: So if you think old people chose to be old,
Speaker 1: you know that is not gonna happen to me. But
Speaker 1: if most old people could go back and tell the
Speaker 1: younger post cells, they would say, hey, fool, don't you
Speaker 1: know stop going out so much and drinking with their
Speaker 1: friends and maybe take one less vacation. First of all,
Speaker 1: don't wear that shirt. You look stupid. Take the money
Speaker 1: from that stupid shirt and put it it's true. It's true.
Speaker 1: And you know what I like about it. When we
Speaker 1: looked at what the traits of a four one K millionaire,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's just really simple stuff. You know, put
Speaker 1: in them as much as you can, but at least
Speaker 1: put it enough to get the company match. You know,
Speaker 1: do it consistently whether the market is up or down.
Speaker 1: That's the other thing. They didn't jump out when the
Speaker 1: market gets crazy. I mean that's an eight Lots of
Speaker 1: people jumped out and they lost the upswing of the market,
Speaker 1: and then they invest in equities. You don't. You see
Speaker 1: your twenties and thirties. You're not gonna put your money
Speaker 1: in bonds. Come on, baby, you need more growth. So
Speaker 1: don't be so conservative, don't be scared um and tell
Speaker 1: those were the trades and you can do it well.
Speaker 1: And I wish people would take the heart advice from
Speaker 1: Warren Buffett that I did many many years ago. You know,
Speaker 1: it's essentially by low so high. But he said when
Speaker 1: people are getting when people are scared, I get greedy.
Speaker 1: When the market is terrible, that's when you invest as
Speaker 1: much as you can because prices are low and it
Speaker 1: will grow. But listen, let's say I don't want to
Speaker 1: dollar time on you know, young people and what they
Speaker 1: ought to do, because you know, I care about that.
Speaker 1: But about for somebody in their forties, maybe even fifties,
Speaker 1: is it too late for them? I say it's never
Speaker 1: too late now. Lots of financial people will just scare
Speaker 1: people to devil. Oh you don't have three million dollars,
Speaker 1: you're just good duh, you know, I mean that's just insane.
Speaker 1: You know. Listen, it may mean that you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a different retirement than you hope for, but it's never
Speaker 1: too late. You've got to make some different choices. So
Speaker 1: maybe you aren't going to buy some villain Florida or
Speaker 1: travel all across the world on a cruise six months
Speaker 1: out of the year. You know, maybe you're gonna have
Speaker 1: shared housing with other folks in your family. Maybe you've
Speaker 1: got a sister or brother and you guys can hand
Speaker 1: your house together. So I just say, never think that
Speaker 1: it's too late. But as soon as you realize you
Speaker 1: don't have enough, you gotta buckle down, cut your expenses,
Speaker 1: do whatever you can to try to stave and catch up.
Speaker 1: Catch up provisions in the in the law. If you're
Speaker 1: fifty or over, you can put in an extra six
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. They'll do those kinds of things. That's the one.
Speaker 1: That's the one in Michelle. I don't want to gloss
Speaker 1: over that because I don't think a lot of people
Speaker 1: know that when you hit fifty you can vastly increase
Speaker 1: what you put away pre tax in your four one k.
Speaker 1: That's right for two nineteen. You can put a maximum
Speaker 1: if your primin. You can put a maximum if you
Speaker 1: have an access to four one k. Now, I know
Speaker 1: most people listen like that woman is insane. But but
Speaker 1: trying to hit that mark as much as you can,
Speaker 1: you know, just push yourself, push yourself, you know, because
Speaker 1: it's gonna come a time where you're gonna need that money. Uh,
Speaker 1: and that may mean making some sacrifices now so that
Speaker 1: you have a secure retirement later. I like your every
Speaker 1: phrase has emphasized the spending part of it. So many
Speaker 1: people leave that out, the spending aspect of where your
Speaker 1: money goes. Michelle Singletary is online syndicated columnists for the
Speaker 1: WAPO and many other papers. You know. And to that end, Michelle,
Speaker 1: my wife and I made a discovery. I don't know
Speaker 1: you probably recommend stuff like this, But buying a car
Speaker 1: is exciting, you know, for me, buying a new guitar
Speaker 1: is exciting. Saving money is not exciting. So this may
Speaker 1: sound dumb to you. We actually have the thermometer with
Speaker 1: the different amounts of money on it and we colored
Speaker 1: in with red for our savings goal. I love it,
Speaker 1: love it. I think that's what you do. That's they're
Speaker 1: The key word you said was goal because people always ask, well,
Speaker 1: how do you do this? How do you say no
Speaker 1: to yourself because you have a goal. My husband and
Speaker 1: I had a goal to send all three of our
Speaker 1: children to college debt free, which we have and we
Speaker 1: did it in a five twenty nine times, which is
Speaker 1: sort of like a four one came for college and
Speaker 1: so that nobody has any debt. Because that's what we did.
Speaker 1: We had a goal so we could say no to
Speaker 1: them when they wanted all the things that their friends had,
Speaker 1: because we knew that we wanted to send them to
Speaker 1: college debt free. They didn't know, so of course they
Speaker 1: fussed and yelled. And that's why we put extra lock
Speaker 1: on our bedroom door so they all smother us in
Speaker 1: all sleep because so but we're Okay, we can take
Speaker 1: the lock off now because now they're graduating, you know,
Speaker 1: and so. But the point is that always have reason
Speaker 1: why you're doing this, and I don't help you. They
Speaker 1: know the things, and you know, for the college, for example,
Speaker 1: for each kid, we said two fifty a month for
Speaker 1: the twenty years to fifty. You've s been that, going
Speaker 1: to McDonald's three times a month, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: and it's it's doable for many people, not all, but
Speaker 1: many people if you can do it. But you gotta say,
Speaker 1: I wish, I wish you were in everybody's ear all
Speaker 1: the time just because it helped her career. Oftentimes government
Speaker 1: policy gets uh put in place to take care of
Speaker 1: people who didn't do these things, as if it's my
Speaker 1: fault that they're now broke because they, you know, took
Speaker 1: nice vacations every year their whole life. My son, by
Speaker 1: the way, he is speaking to your kids and not
Speaker 1: getting the stuff. My son said to me the other day,
Speaker 1: I'm the only kid in my class who hasn't been
Speaker 1: to Hawaii, which I don't think is true. And even
Speaker 1: if it were, that doesn't make any meat, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to tear sony Hawaiian music on the day at
Speaker 1: the front of him. You know, Now, get some skid
Speaker 1: k boy, we'll have a theme party. Michelle Singletary is
Speaker 1: a three has written three personal finance books, including her latest,
Speaker 1: The twenty one Day Financial Fast Your Path to Financial
Speaker 1: Peace and Freedom. Michelle, you're absolutely delightful. Great to talk
Speaker 1: to you. I hope we can do it again. All right,
Speaker 1: thanks a million flipping fantastic as she her lover, her
Speaker 1: grandmother is my hero. She is great. Hangs up on her.
Speaker 1: Don't you call me again until you go start saving,
Speaker 1: just like your regular emphasis on the not spending end
Speaker 1: of it. Yeah, well, listen, you've got your strategy is
Speaker 1: and this, this is why we did the silly thermometer thing.
Speaker 1: I look at that thermometer and I see it going up,
Speaker 1: and I now all of my spending choices I weigh against.
Speaker 1: Or we could make that thermometer go off a little more.
Speaker 1: And that's our big goal. That's our you know, that's
Speaker 1: the cajuna. And it just it, it's it becomes a
Speaker 1: different sort of self indulgence. And so it's not self
Speaker 1: indulgence versus discipline or happiness. Happiness a bad term like
Speaker 1: excitement versus cool discipline. No, it's one excitement versus another excitement.
Speaker 1: It's easier to do. Speaking of discipline, if you had
Speaker 1: one of those donuts out there, I wish you wouldn't
Speaker 1: bring that up. They're fantastic. No, I haven't yet, Michael Hughes,
Speaker 1: what's coming up? When you're ready to ride Metro, we
Speaker 1: want you to know we're ready for you. Here are
Speaker 1: just a few of the people at Metro to tell
Speaker 1: you how we're doing our part to keep riders safe.
Speaker 1: We're cleaning before you've found half sign of signs of
Speaker 1: statist no mask, no Metro need one. We have a
Speaker 1: few extras at Metro. We're doing our part to keep
Speaker 1: the DC area moving. Find out more at well notta
Speaker 1: dot com slash doing our part